“Bush and Sharon must understand the battle of our people against them is long and will not be decided in one round or two,” the brigades said in a statement.

Violence also flared in the West Bank yesterday when a 19-year-old Palestinian died after Israeli soldiers fired on stone-throwers in Nablus, Palestinians said.

In other developments:

* A prominent Palestinian moderate, Sari Nusseibeh, said he spent the past several months quietly working on a Mideast peace proposal with Ami Ayalon, the former head of Israel’s Shin Bet security service.

The plan is to be presented to both sides as a petition, Nusseibeh said.

* U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Kurtzer reportedly told Sharon’s chief of staff, Dov Weisglass, that the Bush administration “found it difficult to understand” why Israeli police closed Nusseibeh’s office at Al Quds University in east Jerusalem, where Nusseibeh is president.

But Israeli interior minister Uzi Landau said the office was a “Trojan horse” being illegally used for political purposes of the Palestinian Authority.